


Kith and Kin

by bagheerita



Series: my name forevermore [5]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Athosians, Gen, Prejudice, Suspicion, Telepathy, Wraith (Stargate), Wraith and babies, Wraith-human interactions, ceremonial drug use of dubious consent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-07 00:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19073449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bagheerita/pseuds/bagheerita
Summary: Teyla must confront her own feelings about the alliance between Atlantis and the Wraith when she brings Wraith representatives to New Athos to present the alliance to her people.





	Kith and Kin

**Author's Note:**

> I meant to space these out for y'all a bit more, but the story is finished so here it is. I'll probably start posting the next one this weekend when I have some time to finish editing.

 

The silence is loud with the echo of John's words, and Teyla locks eyes with him.

John shifts his weight and looks down. "I just mean-" he starts again, but she cuts him off.

"John. I understand you are concerned. And I understand your position." Her voice is patient but the firm line of her smile informs him that she will not be moved. "And that is exactly why you are _not_ invited."

His expression becomes slightly bellicose and Teyla softens.

"It will be something... new, for my people. To encounter Wraith without threat. They are interested in this alliance, but I do not know how they will respond. I do not think your presence will aid the matter."

"But... everyone will be okay." She's not sure if he's asking or demanding that this will be so.

"Everything will be okay," she assures him, but deep inside she wonders.

* * *

Todd joins her at the Stargate wearing his long, hooded coat. Other than the color, it is decidedly un-Wraith-like and reminds her more of a traveler coat. The hood is drawn over his head and she could almost forget what he is except that the Wraithling Tiburon trails behind him, making no attempt to hide himself. Todd raises his eyes and looks at her. He presses his lips together in a tight almost-smile and nods to her.

Teyla is... unsettled. It is not because of Todd himself. She trusts John enough to believe that Todd cares for him, and she believes Todd is intelligent enough to understand that John will not forgive him if harm befalls her because of the Wraith. He is perhaps the only Wraith she trusts as a spokesman to her people in this manner. The Wraithling is, despite his stature, a child from which she does not anticipate any difficulty.

But Todd _is_ perhaps the problem. She trusts John... but not the idea of this alliance. She does wholeheartedly _want_ her people to live free of the threat of the Wraith, but she would _never_ have envisioned it happening by making peace with the Wraith. Even in her time working with Atlantis, working toward a future without fear of culling, this is not something she could have ever predicted. She is still not certain that it is something she even _wants_.

 

She had thought John would appear to see them off, and to try to invite himself along one last time, but he does not. She looks at Todd sidelong and is disturbed when Tiburon echoes her gesture from Todd's other side.

"Sheppard is not coming," Todd says without looking at her.

Teyla nods.

"However," Todd continues, "I believe it would be beneficial if another Wraith joined us."

Teyla can't help the way she tenses. "Why?" she says shortly.

Todd bows his head to her. "It is your decision, as they are your people. I do not wish there to be any doubt in their minds that this alliance is an endeavor that many Wraith are committed to. Your people do not know me, but you do. I do not wish there to be any doubt in your mind either."

Teyla looks at him. He meets her eyes, and she is the one who eventually looks away.

The chevrons on the Stargate begin to illuminate and Teyla sighs because there is not the time she wishes to devote to deliberating this decision.

Todd opens his mouth, and she cuts him off- because she _does_ want it to be _her_ decision, and because she believes her instinctive choice is the true one. "You are correct," Teyla says to Todd. "But I do not wish to delay our departure."

Todd nods. "Comhar is standing by, should you wish to include his presence. He has worked closely with the development of the treatment and continues to do so, should your people have questions concerning it."

Teyla gives him a sidelong look. He is _very_ clever, and she should never forget it. "You may have him join us."

Todd bows his head to her, as if she truly were his queen, but he is smirking. Teyla does not visibly respond but privately she wonders if the tendency toward irreverence was a trait that drew him and John to each other.

As the last chevrons locks, Comhar strides forward and down the steps to join them beside the gate. He inclines his head in greeting to Todd, and then turns to Teyla. "I look forward to this meeting."

Teyla meets Chuck's eyes across the gate room and when he nods to her she moves forward, stepping through the Stargate. She certainly does not feel her skin crawl when three Wraith follow behind her.

 

They arrive through the Stargate on New Athos.

Kanaan is the only one to greet her, as she had asked. Torren is in his arms, his young eyes fixed on the portal with wonder.

Teyla is seized by the thought that she is building a world where someday her son will hear his elders tell stories about the Wraith, about the cullings, and he will laugh because he does not understand their fear and sorrow at all.

That- that is the reason for this. If they cannot destroy the Wraith they can destroy the threat they present, Jennifer working even now to expand the treatment that takes away the Wraith's most feared weapon and their reason for culling.

Teyla nods in greeting to Kanaan; she is too tense to greet him with words.

Kanaan nods to her in return. His eyes are focused on the Wraith. As Teyla walks forward to greet her family, she senses that Todd and Comhar halt and do not follow her from the area just before the Stargate; she can hear Tiburon's smaller steps halt beside his elders.

Teyla reaches for Torren and he comes to her eagerly, babbling, in his child's way, words that do not mean anything. She holds him against her and smiles, fully and truly, because his presence washes away everything else.

But Torren's attention is captured by the visitors, and he babbles questioning sounds, his fat hands reaching.

Teyla inhales a deep breath. It must start with her; with her home, with her heart. Are not all of her people as precious to her as her own son? Will she not expose them all to the Wraith?

She turns toward where Todd waits, Comhar and Tiburon mere steps beyond him, and she almost falters, the memory of Michael and his hands on her son filling her mind.

The Wraith do not move, Todd only raising his head, his sensory pits flaring slightly as he watches her. Comhar stands and folds his arms behind him, the Wraithling at his side.

Teyla steps toward Todd. She feels Kanaan tense- she can hear the protest in his mind, though he does not voice it.

After the few steps that felt like a thousand she is standing in front of Todd, her son in her arms. She looks up at the Wraith. She _does not trust him_ , but she trusts John. She has trusted John with her son before.

Todd is watching her, a wry and dark smirk on his face. He raises his left hand and Torren reaches out, his fingers grabbing hold of the Wraith's.

Torren makes a sound of inquiring curiosity and pulls the Wraith's hand toward him. Todd allows himself to be so manipulated, though he guides Torren's curiosity toward his palm and thumb and away from the longer, ragged-edged nails of his fingers. Never one to be entirely compliant- honestly, Teyla doesn't know where he gets it from- Torren grabs the Wraith's first finger and fits the large bent first knuckle into his mouth where he begins gnawing on it.

Todd grins, the expression sharp and amused. "He is his mother's son," he observes. He extracts his knuckle from Torren's mouth to Torren's loud displeasure.

Teyla does not know if she is pleased or proud or still so seized with worry and fear that she cannot feel anything else. She bounces her son on her hip, shushing him, and she wonders that he has no fear himself even though he must feel hers.

"I understand what you have done and I thank you," Todd says softly, the words only between them. "Perhaps I was hasty before."

"No." Teyla lets her eyes rest on Comhar, who stands watching them with interest, and Tiburon, who looks at everything with curiosity and impatience. "You were right. I need to believe this as much as I need others to believe it." She turns to Kanaan.

Kanaan does not look pleased. His lip is curled and his hand is tight around the long staff he ostensibly carries as a walking stick. He shoots a dark glance at Comhar. "I feel you, here," he touches his temple. "Stop it."

Comhar regards them with surprise, but bows his head and spreads his hands. "I am sorry to have caused distress." He glances between Kanaan and Teyla. "You are Wraithkin, and I assumed that yours was the strong, unfamiliar presence that I felt reaching out to me. But, if you are not..." He does not finish, as there is only one other possibility and therefore his continuing is pointless.

Teyla feels her heart seize in her, and she feels Kanaan's sharp worry, an echo of her own. "He _reaches_ for you?" Kanaan asks, and Teyla's arms tighten around Torren.

Comhar glances at Todd, who sighs at Teyla's immediate reaction of revulsion. "Your son is in the company of his parents who have brought him to meet with friends. Why should he not reach for their minds?" Todd grins at Torren, who scowls at him, affected by his parent's worry.

Sensing Teyla's tension, Tiburon steps up beside Todd and trades scowls with Torren until Todd glances at him sharply and the Wraithling bows his head and steps back.

Teyla takes a deep breath. "It is fine." She touches Torren's cheek and smiles at him a bit desperately. She asks, "Could... could he be harmed, reaching out to strangers?"

Todd frowns and looks at Comhar. "It is possible but unlikely," Comhar says. "He is very responsive, and if he touches an unfriendly mind I think him quick enough to withdraw before being caught. I would keep him away from queens until he grows older and is able to better shield, however. They would sense his touch immediately and he is too young to fight them on his own."

Teyla was certain that she succeeded in hiding her own feeling of guilt on that matter, but Kanaan steps forward and touches her shoulder in solidarity, and Todd reminds her, "When he was within you he was not alone. You fought with him and for him with great fierceness."

 Teyla pulls her serene smile onto her face- and when she looks at her son it settles into something more real- and moves them on to other topics. "Come," she says to them. "I have brought you to meet my people."

Turning, Teyla leads the way toward the village. She doesn't look back, but she knows that Todd, Comhar, and Tiburon follow her, and Kanaan comes last.

 

The village is quiet in anticipation of her arrival. Everyone knows what tonight is, and the eyes of her people look to her as she steps out of the trees. They are seated around the main fire, the night air temperate; even the refugees her people have taken in have gathered now to see what will pass this night, and her eyes catch on Ronon, seated among the others with a look of anticipation on his own face. Teyla scowls at him, but there is a rising hiss of alarm coming from her people as the Wraith step out from the trees behind her.

Todd raises his head as he looks at them; his hood has fallen back and he is fully what he is in the light from the fire and the stars: his hair long and pale, his skin blotched and green, his lip lifting in a parody of a smile to reveal pointed teeth. Comhar, behind him, does not smile but only regards the faces before him calmly. Tiburon scampers with un-Wraithlike inelegance as his shorter legs leave him trailing behind; he halts in alarm when he sees her people, and their many staring eyes, and steps closer to Comhar.

Teyla sighs, because she planned this next part and she had thought it would be harder, but it's actually the easiest part of the night so far. She turns to Todd, and gives Torren into his arms.

Todd fumbles slightly as he attempts to hold the child without dropping him. Torren scowls and grabs onto Todd's hair. Torren doesn't cry, but gives a softly burbled series of grunts that sound like a reprimand. Todd smirks at him, Torren looking back into his slit eyes, and Todd turns and passes the child quickly to Kanaan.

The people seated around the fire inhale sharply with dread as the Wraith touches Torren, and the silence only grows in intensity as Torren fails to react with outrage. In this moment, the people are perfectly ripe for Teyla's words and she does not hesitate.

"Athosians, and our friends who have come to dwell with us and sit at our fire. These are the representatives of the new alliance that Atlantis is building. The Wraith actively seek to find a way to live without the need for culling and the taking of human life."

There is silence when she is finished, but it is a different kind of silence- the silence of no one wanting to be the first to call her a liar.

Todd nods. "You do not believe," he says to them, his voice echoing in odd counterpoint to Teyla's. "That is why we are here." He glances at Comhar, then holds out his left hand to Tiburon. The Wraithling steps forward and raises his right hand in greeting; lit by the fire, the unbroken surface of his palm is in full view of all. He looks at Todd, as if Todd gives him an unspoken command, and raises his left hand as well.

Voices murmurs, some in interest and some in incredulity. Unnerved by the attention, Tiburon pulls his arms in close to himself and hunches his shoulders. Todd curls his left hand around the Wraithling's shoulders and turns his body so that the Wraithling is tucked into his side where he cannot see the watchers. Todd looks back at the faces of those present. "What will it take, for you to believe?"

Seated near the front, Halling stirs the fire. "You come here, saying that now we will be allies." His voice is soft but clear. "And I see that you have made a way for this to work, or so you think. But do you think we can forget that we have lived in terror of culling for generations?" He looks at Teyla. "Teyla, have you forgotten your father, taken from us before you were ready to be without him? Have you forgotten what happened when we first met the New Lanteans?"

"I do not pretend that you have not suffered." Todd speaks before Teyla can. "And I do not pretend that other Wraith have not caused it."

" _Other_ Wraith?" a young woman, Elmet, says scornfully. "But _you_ are not Wraith who cull."

Comhar shakes his head, speaking for the first time. "On the worlds my queen protects the humans suffer from a parasitic infection that can be cured by Wraith-feeding. In most cases the feeding does not affect the human's health negatively and they live far longer than they would if the parasite was permitted to remain. It has eliminated the need for culling on my hive."

Hanara, an older woman seated behind Elmet, grasps as her young son who sits in front of her watching the Wraith with the fascination of the forbidden. "You will infect us all with this parasite just so we can feed you without dying?" she exclaims.

Comhar spreads his left hand in a gesture of appeasement. "No, I merely tell this to show that they are other ways than what you have known." He reaches out his right hand and beckons for Tiburon, who goes to him. "Even now, Doctor Keller is working on the treatment that this Wraithling has undergone, to allow for it to be used on other Wraith."

"And you?" Halling narrows his eyes at Todd. His son Jinto, a young man now, sits beside him and Teyla, who knows her friend well, understands the strength it takes for him to _not_ reach for his son, to protect him but to also draw the Wraith's attention to him. "Do you presume to tell us that you do not cull humans either?"

"I spent many years a prisoner of humans and have not lead a culling since before that time," Todd muses. His expression grows distant. "I was imprisoned in darkness, and I hungered until I thought the sensation of it would devour me." Todd's eyes focus again on Halling. "Tell me, should I treat all humans I meet as I wished to treat those who imprisoned me?" He spreads his left hand in a gesture similar to the one Comhar had used. "I do not ask this in censure, only out of curiosity. I wish to make a new path for Wraith. It is a path that I believe is of benefit to your people as well. Do you wish to walk it with us?"

The fire is dying down a bit as no one moves to feed it, and in the growing darkness there is a slight commotion as a man steps forward. It takes Teyla a moment before she recognizes him; it is Bas'am, one of the newest refugees, and coming with him, supporting his steps, his friend H'cnar. The others move aside for them as they come to where the Wraith stand.

Bas'am looks at Todd and Comhar and finally at Tiburon, the Wraithling drawing back his lips in a silent hiss at the old man's perusal. Bas'am's eyes are rheumy and he is unsteady on his feet, his left leg twisted beneath him, having failed to heal correctly after injury. Neither of the Wraith hurry him as he collects the breath sapped from him by the exertion of moving.

"My planet, my home," begins Bas'am, "was destroyed by the Wraith."

Neither Todd nor Comhar react to this statement but Tiburon shifts his weight and looks worried.

Bas'am does not elaborate, but he does not need to. Teyla looks at the faces around the fire. There is no one here who has not lost homes or loved ones to the Wraith, or both, or everything.

Bas'am nods absently. "I understand that perhaps you believe that not all Wraith are the same as the ones who destroyed my home, but they seem the same from my side. Before I can believe your words, I ask that you partake in the ceremony of _der'fal_. It is a ritual of welcome that was practiced by my people who are now gone. If you honor them, I will trust your words."

Teyla frowns; Bas'am has made no mention of this ceremony to her. She tries to catch Todd's eye, and when it fails she reaches out to his mind. Todd glances at her. _Sheppard has your sworn word,_ he says with a smile as he looks away, which does not comfort her.

"We will honor them," Todd says. "But Tiburon is still a child and forbidden from participating."

Bas'am nods, but H'cnar's expression looks angry. Teyla is even more alarmed by this.

Comhar and Todd kneel beside the fire and H'cnar helps Bas'am to sit across from them. Bas'am gestures to his friend, and H'cnar draws forth from his tunic a flask. H'cnar reaches into the crowd and someone passes him a drinking bowl. He sets the bowl in Bas'am's hands and pours a dark liquid into it from the flask. Bas'am raises the bowl in salute. "Drink the _rikusa_ and the ritual will begin." He tips the bowl toward himself and swallows a sip of the liquid.

Bas'am passes the bowl to Todd, who takes it easily without touching Bas'am skin to skin and without looking as if he is trying not to. It's so neatly done that Teyla is too busy thinking about just _how_ annoying Todd can be and she doesn't even notice that Comhar has also drunk from the bowl and passed it back to H'cnar. H'cnar does _not_ drink from it, and Teyla feels her hands tighten into fists. She has sworn to John that Todd will come to no harm; she is not certain that Wraith can be poisoned in this manner but she finds herself undesirous of finding out this day. A hand touches her arm and she realizes that Ronon is standing, ready, at her side.

It begins to affect Comhar first. He hisses something unintelligible, and he falls backward, curling on his side and moaning. Tiburon crouches beside him, his eyes wide in alarm and his hands clutched in the older Wraith's coat. The people who had inched closer to see what would happen scatter back, and their eyes are sharp on Todd in expectation.

Todd sits, staring across the fire at Bas'am. He does not appear affected. But, he does not react to the threat when H'cnar draws forth a long knife.

"It is time," H'cnar says as he steps forward.

Tiburon hisses, full-voiced, and bares teeth and claws at the man.

"It is _not_ ," Teyla interrupts hotly. "What do you mean by this? Will you make a mockery of the hospitality offered to you by denying it to others?"

"They are _Wraith_ ," H'cnar snarls. "They are not _people_ to whom hospitality is offered; they are dangerous vermin to be exterminated." The other survivors of his world have slipped through the crowd to stand near him though none of them yet have drawn weapons. "Bas'am volunteered to be the sacrifice. We will kill these Wraith and tell the galaxy what we think of this alliance."

Tiburon's angry defiance has melted into fear and he looks very much a child alone.

Teyla's own anger roars through her, but a hand on her shoulder keeps her words behind her lips.

Ronon steps forward, unsheathing his sword; the hilt is made of Wraith bone and the ends of braided Wraith hair dangle from the grip. He levels the weapon at H'cnar as he moves between H'cnar and Tiburon. "You will not," he says simply. He lets the point of the sword fall to the dirt, then drops into an easy crouch between Bas'am and Todd, his eyes on H'cnar as if daring him to try something.

"You will keep to the laws of welcome," Halling adds, his words tight with admonition, as if he is offended that Teyla would even suspect that he would not support her even though her outrage was never directed at him.

"We do not rid ourselves of them by becoming worse than them," Elmet adds scornfully. "You came here in search of a new home, of healing. Do not bring your hatefulness with you as well."

"I have seen Wraith and I have heard tales of them, but the horrors I have seen in _my_ life have been perpetrated by men," another voice says from the edge of the crowd and Teyla recognizes Elynara, who had come to New Athos only recently with her mother after their own people cast them out. "You would slaughter a _child_ that cannot hurt you? You think that we would stand here and let you do this?" She walks forward, around the other side of the fire from H'cnar and Ronon. Tiburon watches her warily; she doesn't try to touch him but she stands near him.

Teyla takes a deep breath, bolstered by the voices that have been raised. "If you do not wish to be part of the alliance, that is your choice," she tells H'cnar and his people. "But do not strike at messengers who come in good faith."

H'cnar sneers at her. "And if they act as Wraith would, will you then understand that they will not change, that they will always desire your life, your subjugation?"

"If harm befalls Bas'am it is no less than he deserves," Kanaan says from somewhere behind her, and Teyla burns with agreement- and with thanks that she did not have to be the one to say it. Her mind reaches out to Kanaan, and wordless love echoes between them along with their shared outrage and readiness to protect their people.

"You speak of Bas'am as if he has already fallen," Hanara says. "You speak of the Wraith as if they only consume. I would not have believed it, but I see and believe that these ones speak truth. Look at them."

All eyes return to Bas'am and Todd, still sitting with their eyes locked upon one another. Comhar has fallen silent but lays on his side shivering while Tiburon crouches over him.

"What is the purpose of the _rikusa_?" Teyla asks H'cnar what she should have asked before.

"We did not lie about it," H'cnar says defensively. "It _is_ a ritual of welcome from our home planet. It opens the mind, drawing the thoughts of those who partake to each other and enmeshing them together so that they cannot hide their true intent."

Teyla looks at him, wondering if she has misheard. "Bas'am has knowingly entered into a battle of the mind with _Wraith_?"

"He was the sacrifice," H'cnar repeats, somewhat defensively.

Bas'am shivers and starts to sweat but does not move. Comhar inhales sharply and pushes himself up from the ground until he is half sitting. He whirls to face those gathered, shaking off Tiburon's hold, his expression wild. Everyone draws back, and Ronon half rises from his crouch, but Comhar pulls himself back. He stands shakily, resting his hands on Tiburon's shoulders as the Wraithling looks at him worriedly. Comhar's lips are pulled back from his teeth in a silent snarl, but he moves like a creature seeking escape, not attack.

"What has happened?" Teyla asks him, when it doesn't seem as though he will speak of his own accord.

Comhar eyes H'cnar. "What has _not_ happened is of more interest to me." He shifts his gaze to Teyla and then to Tiburon, his left hand curling against the Wraithling's neck protectively. She suppresses a sigh, but Comhar must sense her frustration and tension and deigns to explain. "The _rikusa_ this human claims as a drink of greeting is a substance that alters the mind. It draws human minds together, opened to each other, until it wears off, or such is what Bas'am believes about it. For Wraith this effect is... magnified, drawing us out of ourselves. Since the mindspeak of hivesense is so naturally powerful among Wraith, the effect is somewhat," he bares his teeth and the last word is almost a snarl, "disorienting." He shifts his weight. "I do not know how he did it, but the Commander retained his sense of himself, and if your Bas'am comes away from this with any piece of his mind remaining to him you owe him your most powerful thanks, for the idiot deserves much worse."

"Todd is protecting Bas'am?" Teyla asks in surprise.

"This human told us that his people would kill us when he had trapped our minds and our ability to fight back." Tiburon snarls in alarm and Comhar eyes H'cnar's knife. "The Commander assured him he was mistaken, and he is in the process of gradually disentangling each of us from the mire that has been created."

Teyla takes a deep breath. "H'cnar," she says evenly. "When this is finished, you have one turning of the sun to remove yourself and all your people from New Athos."

H'cnar leans toward her in threat, but Ronon stands swiftly, wordlessly looming over H'cnar in challenge. H'cnar snarls, "You would choose _Wraith_ over your own kind?"

She can feel her people watching her. "No," Teyla says calmly. "I choose to protect my people from what you have brought to them. You have dishonored our hospitality. I will not allow it again."

H'cnar seems as though he might stalk off in anger, as he is thwarted from attacking her, but Bas'am still sits, alive, beside the fire, and H'cnar does not seem inclined to leave him.

A long stretch of time passes. Halling stirs the fire and Elmet and Jinto add fuel to it. Teyla takes back Torren, and Elynara offers Tiburon water. No one leaves.

Teyla watches them all as they watch the drama unfold. Her people are whispering and talking to each other, stealing glances back at the Wraith.

Comhar looks exhausted and he sits with Tiburon in the circle of his arms, his cheek resting against the Wraithling's head. Teyla leans closer to him. "Should it take this long?"

Comhar closes his eyes. "It bodes well for the human. If the Commander was not intent upon preserving his mind it could be ended at any moment."

He speaks loud enough that many can hear him, but Teyla cannot tell if he is aware of this. Todd was right to bring him, she thinks. She _knows_ Todd, but just seeing that other Wraith are able to sit here with her people and not feed does give her confidence for this alliance. It is a thing that could _work_. Despite the setbacks that H'cnar, and others, would deal to them.

Todd moves; his hand, resting against his leg, twitches.

Teyla flinches when she sees it from the corner of her eye, but it is no more than a quick thrill of adrenaline.

Bas'am inhales, a long, slow process that culminates in a rising sort of moan. He shakes himself; H'cnar isn't fast enough and Elmet is the one who catches him as he falls over.

H'cnar crouches beside Bas'am. "You have survived," he asks, half observation, half question.

Bas'am reaches for H'cnar and fists his hand in the other man's tunic. "Do not do it," he says, his voice surprisingly strong. "Do not do it, we were wrong," he repeats.

Ronon, crouched on his other side, says, "Peace, Grandfather. It is not done."

Bas'am quiets.

Todd shivers and blinks. His eyes snap to Teyla and she nods. His face relaxes and he smiles his mocking smile. His eyes fall on H'cnar. "I see in what esteem you hold your hospitality," he drawls.

H'cnar's expression is one of distaste. "You come here because you are threatened for the first time. You only cry for alliance because you realize now the death you bring to us has every chance of coming for you when you feed."

"That has been a factor that has brought more Wraith to a point of alliance than would normally have been interested," Todd allows. "But there are ways around such difficulties." He tilts his head back and then smoothly rises to his feet. The conversations around the fire fall silent under his regard. He turns to Teyla.

She steps forward, Torren on her hip. "You know already, H'cnar acted without the approval or consent of me and my people."

Todd bows his head to her. "You have already sworn to me on this matter, and I trusted your word," he replies. "I do not hold you or yours accountable for what has occurred."

Teyla nods. "H'cnar has the span of one day to remove himself from my people. Then his people will be cast upon the galaxy, to seek shelter elsewhere. Somewhere that is _not_ within the alliance."

H'cnar balls his fists, as if she has betrayed him in turn by telling the Wraith that he will be without support.

"That will be difficult for him and his people," Todd says without derision. "His actions have not changed my own nor my hive's determination to ensure that this alliance succeeds."

H'cnar looks surprised, and then angry, as if he would argue against the Wraith at all choosing to _not_ feed on humans.

"H'cnar," Teyla cuts him off before he can speak. "Remove yourself from this fire."

Still looking belligerent, H'cnar lifts Bas'am's shaking form in his arms and leaves, the rest of their people following silently.

Teyla looks up at Todd. Torren blows bubbles at him and giggles. Todd regards Torren seriously, and Teyla looks out at her people. "I believe we had something to discuss," she reminds them all.

 

* * *

 

The sky is grey with the soon to be rising sun by the time Teyla walks her guests back to the Stargate. This time Ronon is her companion; Kanaan is with Torren, the child asleep, finally, after a long night of excitement.

Ronon dials the gate without delay and doesn't look at Tiburon, who watches him with interest. Ronon finally turns to glare balefully at the Wraithling, who skitters behind Comhar before peering back at Ronon.

Todd hangs a few steps behind them, and Teyla stands with him when he pauses. "Thank you for this," Teyla says.

Todd grins, and Teyla knows he is amused and pleased at her boldness. "I came expecting betrayal," he replies, "though I hoped it would not come from you."

She stands rigid. "I would _not_ -" she begins.

Todd raises his left hand against her protest and chuckles softly. "John was certain you would not. I am somewhat more suspicious, generally." His strange eyes settle on her, and he says again, "But John was certain."

Teyla laughs herself as she realizes, "It is only because of John that I trust _you_."

Todd's grin widens. "In the days before I remembered myself," he muses, "I heard a Traveler tell a tale of Sheppard as the generator of uncommon alliances."

"I suppose it is too bad that he could not be here to witness it," Teyla muses.

"It is better," Todd replies. "He served well enough tonight where he was."

He doesn't exactly _say_ anything, but somehow she knows, "Comhar said he didn't know how you were doing it, but it was John, wasn't it? He did something, to help you with the _rikusa_."

"Hmmm," Todd grins. "That would be telling."

Teyla shakes her head and walks toward the gate where Ronon waits for them impatiently.

The five of them all return to Atlantis, and Teyla is not surprised to find that John is waiting for them. He jogs easily down the stairs from the control level, and Teyla would almost believe that he hadn't been worried. He greets each of them, encountering Ronon first, then nodding to Comhar and ruffling Tiburon's hair, pausing for a longer moment beside the Wraithling when he seems still unsettled. Finally, John stops in front of Todd and their eyes lock on each other. John smiles, a soft expression that feels too private for such a public space, but he easily turns it into a grin as he turns away and walks over to Teyla.

"So," John asks, perfectly nonchalant. "How'd it go?"

"I think you know," she says back calmly.                      

"Yeah, but did you get it?"

Teyla smiles. "It was surprisingly easy," she allows, and John squeezes her hand in full awareness that it was anything but. "Torren was much amenable," she continues. "For most of it." Teyla's expression turns without struggle to one of mischief as she pulls the device that Rodney gave her from the pocket of her jacket. She presses the buttons that activate the photo gallery, and then turns the cellular phone toward John so that he can see the images.

The first image is of Tiburon holding Torren at arm's length, both of them looking rather doubtful about this situation. John huffs a small laugh.

The second is of Comhar standing beside the fire, his arms folded behind him, listening intently to Halling who stands beside him. At their feet Jinto and Tiburon appear to be playing a game that involves flat stones.

The next one is of Kanaan and Todd seated beside each other, their eyes fixed on something that is beyond the camera. They are tense and wary, but not of each other.

"Thanks," John says. "Really. This should be great for the public image bit, and get Woolsey off my back. Apparently I'm shirking my duties as Wraith diplomat."

"There are more," Teyla says, and she flicks to the next image.

It is Todd, with Torren asleep in his arms.

John laughs again, the sound light and warm as it echoes through Stargate Operations. "Okay, that one might be my favorite."

Todd, following Comhar and Tiburon, glances back at them. His expression is indulgent, as if John's laughter is something that he would trade many things in order to hear.

Even knowing everything that is between them, it is not an expression that Teyla would have ever expected to see on the face of a Wraith; even Todd. She is thoughtful as she follows John up the steps toward the control room.


End file.
